Earlier this year, we launched the Always, Often, Occasional model for classifying our coffees. However at the time from Mexico, only coffees from Enrique Lopez at Finca Chelín made it to the Occasional category.

This didn’t seem right; so what did it mean for how we approach our buying structure?

Occasional coffees are derived from high cost inputs; typically innovative processing methods, or difficult to grow coffee varieties. The direct impact of these coffees is limited due to their small volume, but their role in driving demand and interest to a producer, region, or origin is their true value.

The Sierra Mazateca’s coffee producers are affected by remoteness, an absence of central coordination, and almost negligible yields. Yet simultaneously, the region’s incredible terroir creates remarkable cup quality. This combination made us reconsider the lines we had drawn in our model. Perhaps, the best input for creating Occasional coffees is not processing or varieties, but QC.

And thus, the Lotecitos were born. The name translates as tiny lots in Spanish. For all intents and purposes these coffees are microlots, whilst also being blends; built of tiny individual deliveries of parchment from many producers. These small volumes score above 86.5 points, but are not large enough to represent even one bag of exportable green coffee.

For example, the fifteen bags of Lotecitos on their way to Europe this year are comprised of lots from 41 individual producers. The parchment deliveries ranged in size from 11.5kg - 84.5kg, with a modal average of 29kg.

Once processed from parchment to green bean volumes, the average yield in the Sierra Mazateca is just 61%. So from the parchment delivered, if the modal average of parchment is 29kg, the modal green bean volume is just over 17kg from these producers.

“Each contributor to the Lotecitos scored between 86.5 and a whopping 89 points”

Normally, these lots would be blended into larger lots for efficiency's sake. Yet the cup scores of each of these lots demand far better treatment! Each contributor to the Lotecitos scored between 86.5 and a whopping 89 points, with an average score of just over 87.5. We are determined to pay significantly higher prices for this quality of coffee, and to bring the outstanding washed coffees of the Sierra Mazateca to the market, even when they are produced in such tiny volumes.

Occasional

The tip of the triangle with the highest quality, but least impact compared to the Always category. These are defined by input, highly specific to variety, or processing, and score upwards of 87+.

This is only possible with a monumental amount of QC work in Mexico. Our partners Red Beetle Coffee Lab assess and cup several thousand individual lots of coffee every season from their base in Oaxaca. They insist on cupping every delivery from the Sierra Mazateca individually (even when it is as small as 11.5kg of parchment) to ensure the very best, highest value coffees do not lose that value to the producer, and their value in promoting the overall quality of these coffees.

This input is more intentional, time consuming, and costly than more typical delivery and processing channels. On reexamination, we would be hard pressed to define these as anything but worthy of the Occasional category.

The nearly indiscernible gems of the Sierra Mazateca